Ryanair, the cheeky Irish low cost airline, has decided to hand out 30 Euro fines to any passengers trying to bring too much stuff with them in their cabin baggage.

When airlines started charging people for each checked bag, it was only a matter of time till passengers figured it would be much cheaper to just drag as much as possible into the cabin. And it was only a matter of time until the airlines noticed that not enough people were paying for their overpriced baggage service. Their solution? Ticket the passengers!

Checking a bag will cost between 10 and 20 Euros, but anyone caught trying to sneak too much into the cabin can pay the 30 Euro fine, or stay home, because not paying the fine = no travel for you.

The system appears to be pretty well planned, as it does not seem like you are able to check the excess cabin baggage once on board – which should force people to just pay the checked bag fee instead of trying to take a chance the flight attendant won’t notice your massive bags.

I’m really not sure what to make of this, on the one hand I’ve seen plenty of people drag far more on board than they should, and on the other hand I’m annoyed that airlines have started charging for checking bags, which has always been a free service included with your ticket.

The list of fees Ryanair charges their passengers is massive, but to actually start handing out a “fine” when you try to cheat things is just plain miserable.

I bet that some American airlines are probably looking at this new development, and I’m sure some of their bean counters have already been crunching the numbers to see just how much cash they could make off us poor passengers.